may not even have mentioned the marvelous statement. Obviously,
we could do no more with apparently credible cases, reported by
reputable medical men, than to cite author and source and leave
the matter there, where our responsibility must end.

But where our proper responsibility seemed likely never to end
was in carrying out the enormous labor requisite for a reasonable
certainty that we had omitted no searching that might lead to
undiscovered facts, ancient or modern. Choice in selection is
always, of course, an affair de gustibus, and especially when,
like the present, there is considerable embarrassment of riches,
coupled with the purpose of compressing our results in one handy
volume. In brief, it may be said that several years of exhaustive
research have been spent by us in the great medical libraries of
the United States and Europe in collecting the material herewith
presented. If, despite of this, omissions and errors are to be
found, we shall be grateful to have them pointed out. It must be
remembered that limits of space have forbidden satisfactory
discussion of the cases, and the prime object of the whole work
has been to carefully collect and group the anomalies and
curiosities, and allow the reader to form his own conclusions and
make his own deductions.

As the entire labor in the preparation of the forelying volume,
from the inception of the idea to the completion of the index,
has been exclusively the personal work of the authors, it is with
full confidence of the authenticity of the reports quoted that
the material is presented.

Complete references are given to those facts that are